Journal bearing



March 20, 1928.

c. "r. RIPLEY JOURNAL BEARING- Filed April 24. 1925 I n I/ Patented Mar. I 20, 1928.

' UNITED STATES.

1,662,901 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES T. RIPLEY, OF CHICAGQILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO S; & METAL COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

crewman. BEARING.

Application filed April 24, 1925. Serial No. 25,464.

This invention relates to journal bearings, such, for example, as the journal bearings used 011 railway cars andlocomotives. It has been usual to make journal bearings of cast brass with their bearing surfaces covered or lined with some suitable antifriction metal such as Babbitt metal. vBut the life of journal bearings of this character is of short duration, on the average. The babbitt is relatively thin and soon wears down to the brass or cracks due to its brittle nature. If this occurs while the train is at a distance from a repair shop, as will ordinarily be the case, the contact, more or less prolonged, of the journal with the brass casting which forms the body of the bearing, is likely to cut the journal involving serious loss. Moreover, due to the differing designs and sizes of journal boxes and their bearings and wedges, and differing heights of collars on axles, there is no way to inspect journal hearings to determine the extent to which they may be worn without jacking up the car. Hence the usual practice is not to make replacements until a hot box has developed on the 'road, necessitating completion of the run to some terminal or station'before the bearing can be replaced or the car out out. It is the primary purpose of this invention to obviate these disadvantages by providing a hearing which, instead of being made of a brass castin with anti-friction metal lining, iscompose as a whole, of a suitable anti-friction metal of the general character of babbitt (that is, a metal having anti-friction properties superior to brass or bronze) but reinforced to increase the tensile strength of the bearing so that it will hold together, especially when worn thin, and to form and arrange the reinforcement 'so that it will constitute an emergency bearing element which will remain in place between the journal and wedge and thus allow the car to be brought to the terminal in case the intervening bearing metal has become dissipated either through wear or by being melted at the temperature developed by a hot box.

A. further object of the invention is to provide an indicator to give warning of the wear of the bearing.

Other incidental objects of the invention will be referred to in the following descrip-- tion of the preferred form. of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a railway car journal box and journal proyided with a bearing in accordance with my lnvention.

Fig; 2 is a cross sectional perspective view of the bearing showing the forward or outer end of the'same, and

Fig. 3 is a view, in perspective, on a larger scale than Figs. 1 and 2, of the reinforcement. 1 Referring to the drawing, 10 designates a railway journal box of standard construction and '11 one of the axles of the car pro-. vided with a journal 12 having the usual collar 13. The wedge which intervenes between the top of the journal box and the bearing, to be described, is designated 14.

The bearing may have the contour of the usual journal bearing but instead. of being made of brass with its bearing surface lined with babbitt, the body of the bearing, designated 15, is composed of some suitable antifriction metal of the Babbitt type reinforced by a sheet metal'element 16 which. is preferably embedded in the body 15 at some distance below the upper surface of the same. This reinforcing or emergency bearing element 16 is of cylindrical curvature, with its under side concave, and is preferably formed .With a plurality of perforations 17. These perforations may be punched out of the sheet so as to leave burrs or bosses 18 on the upper side of the sheet which aid in bondin the reinforcement in the relatively so t metal body. In manufacturing the bearin the. reinforcement is cast into the body -0 anti-friction metal. To further increase the bond the reinforcement is preferably 'provided with longitudinal flanges 19.. The

reinforcement as against the end thrust of the journal collar 13 is preferably provided by forming element 16 at one end with a flange 19 which is exposed at the outer end of the bearing, that is, at the end of the bearing with which the collar 13 comes into contact. A similar flange might be provided at the other end of the bearing to take the thrust of the shoulder of axle 11.

In order to provide means for indicating when the bearing has worn. down to the reinforcement, a well to contain an indicating substance is provided which extends downward] through one of the perforations of the reinforcement terminat ng preferably in line with the lower surface of the reinforcement. This well may be formed by drilling a hole 20 in'the top of the bearing and'filling the same with acolored liquid or other suitable substance 21. The metal may then be upset to close the hole as indicated at 22.

When the bearing wears far enough to open the lower end of the well the liquid 21 will flow out over the journal so that it may be seen when the cover 23 of the journal box is raised.

It will be observed that the reinforcement 16, being embedded in and firmly bonded with the bearing metal, will serve, in the first place, to give the bearing sufficient tensile' strength so that it will not be readily broken or crushed even when worn down to a considerable extent. When the portion of the bearing metal below the reinforcement is completely worn away the bearing should be replaced with a new one but if this occurs at a place remote from a terminal or repair shop, the reinforcement, being shaped to the journal, will provide, with the body ofmetal above it, an emergency bearing which will remain in place under the wedge so that the car can be moved to its destination. The

reinforcement being of sheet metal will be less apt to cut the journal than the cast metal of the ordinary journal bearing. Moreover, the body of bearing metal abovethe reinforcement will provide a certain amount of lubrication through the perforations 18 of the reinforcement, particularly as the heat developed will be likely to soften or even melt this metal. Even if the heat developed by a hot box is enough to melt the bearing metal the reinforcing element will, nevertheless, provide an emergency bearing between the journal and wedge. The rein: forcement is so bonded to the bearing metal that if the latter becomes broken it will hold the parts together. The flange 19 of the reinforcing member armours the bearing against end thrust ofthe collar 13 of the journal. v

I claim:

1. A journal bearing comprising abody of anti-friction metal, a reinforcement embedded in said body, the body above said reinforcement formed with a well extending through the reinforcement, and an indicating fluid normally confined in said well.

2. A journal bearing containing an indicating fluid freed by wear of the bearing to a certain extent.

A journal bearing comprising a body of anti-friction metal formed in its upper portion with a normally closed well, adapted to be opened when the metal has worn away to a predetermined extent, and a quantity of indicating fluid confined within said well.

4. A journal bearing comprising a body of anthfriction metal adapted to contact with a journal, and formed with a normally closed well in that portion of the metal remote from the journal, the well being opened when the metal has worn away to a predetermined extent, and an indicator confined in the well and adapted to become visible on the journal when released.

- 5. A journal bearing comprising a body of anti-friction metal adapted to contact with a journal, and formed with a normally closed well in that portion of themetal remote from the journal, the well being opened when the metal has worn away to a predetermined exteut, and an indicator confined in the well and adapted to flow onto the journal when released.

CHARLES T. RIPLEY.

MM WW Win" 

